Toy prototype details
Name: BarkosTM
Subtitle: defiant heir
Line: KR|Dimness
Item type: action figure (dual figure) - Nº 4 in the line.
Character details
Name: Barkos
Classification: human
Sex: male
Relationships: stepson of Wordron
Home: Tahron
Era: 5 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Dark Legion
Rank: rear marshal.
Background
First appearance: KR|Dimness #1 - Into dimness: Part I – Awakening
Brief bio: raised as a hereditary duke, Barkos was in fact born to Modi-RhaTM and a fellow soldier in O-Kin's Golden Eagle armed force. When his biological father was mysteriously found dead, Duke Wordron, secretly his mother's half-brother, acknowledged his paternity of the newborn child. Marrying Modi-Rha and having a son, in turn, allowed Wordron to maintain his noble status in O-Kin's high society. After briefly encountering the Therioms during his childhood, Barkos was exiled with his family at Ucamur. In spite of his little talent for the supernatural, he inherited enhanced psychic abilities from his mother, which made him an excellent channel for the great powers of the prodigious helmet that was once more retrieved by his stepfather. Upon wearing the helmet, Barkos was transformed into a ferocious werewolf with incredible strength and the power to leap great distances, but when Wordron sent him to the Forseha settlement to subjugate the rebellious tribe, he faced Yla-Nha and was instantly defeated. When Modi-Rha, in an attempt to free her son's mind from Wordron's thrall, revealed the truth about his parentage, Barkos felt unable to oppress the Forseha clan further and, as a result, defected and helped the tribe members escape the Dark Legion's wicked plot. Following his adoptive father's death, he found it difficult to be recognised as a hero by his enemies despite his brave act. However, having discovered the gleam of hope within himself, he decided to hide the powerful helmet in a secret location, to prevent anybody with evil intentions from gaining possession of it.
Articulation
Both figures have the standard articulation; the enhanced form also features a tail, which is a ball jointed separate piece.
Description
In the comics, Barkos wears a magic helmet that in certain situations gives him incredible abilities and changes his look. Despite the two figures represent the same character, they render the two alternative forms and appear very different. Although it's not clear whether these figures will be released individually or in a 2-pack, I'm going to describe them separately.
Normal form
Head: pale white skin, a wide, long stringy black mohawk and blue eyes. To add further boldness to the look, his hairstyle is combined with shaved sides that include some wicked tattoos, which kind of recall claw scratches. He also has a pair of devilish pointy ears, while his eyebrows seem to be missing
Body: the exposed parts of his body (i.e., arms and chest) show pale white skin
Wearables: a short-sleeved dark-green vest with silver edges and armholes (which expand into riveted shoulder pads), a pair of dark-green trousers, two silver bracelets (each with a knuckle protector and a pair of spikes sticking out of the side), two silver boots (each with an ornamented knee guard that resembles a wolf face) and a silver belt (equipped with a buckle bearing the Dark Legion emblem, i.e., a diamond-shaped black gemstone, which, when looking deeply into it, shows a subtle discolouration resembling a demonic face). The vest falls just below the hips, features a stand-up mandarin collar and is open on the chest (although the two sides of the vertical opening on the front are loosely joined with two light-brown leather strings and secured by the belt at the waist), exposing two criss-crossed gold and silver necklaces.
Enhanced form
Head: similarly to other characters in the KR universe, Barkos wears one of the silver magic helmets, which in certain circumstances produces a wolf-like half mask (or visor) and gives him incredible physical and mental powers, changing his appearance significantly. The figure comes with an helmeted head, characterised by the grey-wolf visor activated, fierce bright yellow, glowing eyes and a covering of dark hair around the open mouth (which exposes large sharp whitish fangs). In addition to the standard side crests, the helmet is also adorned with two triangular metal decorations resembling canine ears
Body: he exhibits the bulkier sculpt that has previously been used for Grabtrak and Khon-Uhr, which displays a thick mottled grey to brown fur on the limbs, as well as claw hands and feet (unlike the normal form, this version of Barkos is barefoot). During his transformation, Barkos also grows a long bushy grey to brown tail, which in the figure is connected to the back of the loincloth via a ball joint
Wearables: a silver armour with dark-green details (which features a number of claw scratches on the chest plate), two laminar silver bracelets, two studded silver ankle bracelets, a studded silver belt (with a wolf face-shaped buckle) and a fairly long dark-green furry loincloth.
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| Barkos' stylised helmet with side crests. |
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| Barkos' stylised armour. |
Action feature
To simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics, a pair of large ivory claws can snap into each bracelet of Barkos' enhanced form.
Weapons and accessories
Barkos' normal form includes a dagger with a greenish wooden hilt (whose shape is made to resemble the end part of a long bone) and an S-shaped silver crossguard that develops into two intertwining blades; each silver blade ends with a sharp point, making the weapon recall Thulsa Doom's dagger from the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian. The dagger can have its blade inserted in a light-brown leather sheath attached to a loose fitting belt, which is a separate piece that can be repositioned to one's liking.
The enhanced form comes with a sword that is an augmented version of the above-mentioned dagger. This weapon has a greenish oxidised bronze hilt (whose pommel resembles a wolf skull) and two S-shaped silver crossguards set side by side, which develop into two long parallel blades; each blade, in turn, is composed of four smaller intertwining blades (two made of silver and two made of gold) and ends with an arrangement of four prongs that recall the claws of a wolf paw. The sword can have one of its two blades inserted in a dark-brown leather scabbard attached to the back of a removable harness, whose shoulder straps are ornamented with silver spikes and massive shoulder pads (each equipped with four large bony claws projecting sideways).
Finally, there is an alternative head for the figure's normal form, which wears the inactive helmet, i.e., with neither the grey-wolf visor activated nor the metal ears. This head works as the necessary bridge between the unhelmeted and the helmeted-with-visor heads.
Final thoughts
Character value: ♦♦♦ Yes, Barkos lacks that natural evil of his stepfather, but his defiant nature makes him definitely boss
Articulation: ♥♥♥ The long hair of the normal form restricts the neck articulation somewhat. Otherwise, both figures can take very natural poses, allowing for some great display potential
Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ This adult version of a character that we had already seen as a kid in the KR|Enmity series turned out really nice - he's one bad ass looking dude! Most of the paint work is quite good, especially on the fur of the enhanced form, which looks terrific
Accessories: ♠♠♠ I really love his augmented sword, with its double blade and ornate hilt. Unlike the smaller dagger, the sword is also a very sturdy piece
Playability: ♪♪♪♪ The KR|Dimness series is more and more proving great fun, and Barkos is just another example of how good PoliganToys can be when they want to... fortunately, they often do!
Overall: ☺☺☺ I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of Barkos, since he doesn't have the cool dragon/skeleton theme of Wordron. But once he was out of the package, I began to appreciate his overall look and design, and it's actually nice to have another animal-looking enhanced warrior in the series.
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